The tense day the handball arena's lockdown ended
Parliamentary probe team, backed by police, gains entry to venue
Man in his 60s arrested after shoving officer at the scene
Rally participant: 'The methods were far too violent'
At around 1:08 p.m. Thursday, entrance 2-2 of the handball arena at Olympic Park in Seoul's Songpa-gu swung open after 27 days of blockade. Some 1,500 officers deployed to the venue had taken a wide detour around the arena to secure an approach route, moving so quickly that protesters had no time to respond. As the 27-day blockade collapsed in minutes, rally participants reacted with fury or stunned disbelief.
Once the doors opened, members and aides of the National Assembly's Special Committee for Parliamentary Investigation — formed to probe the ballot-shortage crisis during the June 3 local elections — entered the arena. The committee spent about 40 minutes examining ballot boxes from Songpa-gu stored inside.
Arena opened 20 minutes after full deployment
From the morning, rally participants at the scene had been bracing for a forced police entry. They gathered in front of entrance 2-1 — the same gate where a standoff had occurred during an earlier attempt to enter the Korean Sport and Olympic Committee building. Among them was a woman in her 30s known by the online handle "All Dark." Participants covered their faces with masks and balaclavas and bound the door handles tightly with blue tape and rope.
About 40 participants stood with their backs to the entrance, chanting slogans such as "fraudulent election — hold a new vote." Tension mounted as the parliamentary committee members arrived later than scheduled. Some YouTubers began taunting the protesters with rival chants, drawing a hostile response — participants surged toward them, hurling insults and shouting.
At around 11:58 a.m., the parliamentary committee members arrived at a parking lot near the arena to begin their on-site inspection. Police — including community liaison officers and detectives — formed a human barricade from the bus drop-off point to the parking lot. Meanwhile, riot police units took a wide detour around the arena and secured a path to entrance 2-2.
At around 12:48 p.m., as the committee members stepped off the bus, police moved into action. Officers guided the members along the pre-secured route, bypassing the main approach entirely and arriving at entrance 2-2. Only about 10 people were guarding that gate at the time. Because entrance 2-2 is narrower than the other entrances, the bulk of the protesters had concentrated at entrance 2-1.
Police then formed teams of four and lifted the blocking participants — one by one, by their arms and legs — and carried them away from the entrance. Some participants struggled and cried out in pain as they were removed.
Once all participants blocking the entrance had been cleared, confirmed at around 1:08 p.m., police removed the remaining obstructions, raised the shutter and opened the doors.
'You're the ones who failed to hold this gate' — recriminations after police withdraw
As the blockade ended, participants who had kept vigil around the arena since June 5 reacted with anger or stunned disbelief.
Shortly after police withdrew, a scuffle broke out when one participant posted a picket sign reading "Special prosecutor for AWEB (Association of World Election Bodies)" near entrance 2-2. Other participants rushed over, shouting that the gate was reserved for election-fraud chants only and demanding the sign be removed. The confrontation quickly turned into a blame game, with one participant firing back: "You're the ones who failed to hold this gate."
Hwang Chae-yang, 37, said she was taken aback by the sheer number of officers deployed. "It feels like an abuse of power," she said. "They blocked everything as if they were surrounding the place."
"The methods were far too violent — I felt betrayed," she added. "I hope this situation gets resolved in a way that ordinary citizens can accept."
A participant in her 20s, who asked not to be identified, said it was "absurd to forcibly drive citizens out like that." She also questioned the credibility of an inspection conducted out of public view. "I don't see it as a meaningful solution — I'm not optimistic," she said.
Jeong, 72, dismissed the committee's entry as mere theater. "What the Assembly members just did was just for show," he said. "What we need is a special prosecutor led by the opposition party."
To secure entry for the parliamentary committee, police deployed a total of 1,500 personnel Thursday — including 100 community liaison officers, 200 detectives and more than 20 riot police units. Police also arrested a man in his 60s who shoved an officer during the entry operation; he is to be investigated.
20ki@heraldcorp.com
